Device with a telescopic or collapsible chute for delivering flowable bulk cargo

ABSTRACT

PCT No. PCT/DK91/00272 Sec. 371 Date Feb. 22, 1993 Sec. 102(e) Date Feb. 22, 1993 PCT Filed Sep. 16, 1991 PCT Pub. No. WO92/05098 PCT Pub. Date Apr. 2, 1992.Apparatus for delivering flowable bulk material such as grain, substantially free of dust into a receptacle, such as a vehicle, wherein the grain is delivered through a filter assembly to a chute which can be elongated and contracted and which has a lower end for connection to the vehicle. The filter assembly is also capable of assuming elongated and contracted states in order to confer a greater free height below the lower end of the chute. The filter assembly is formed with an outside filter housing capable of being elongated and contracted and within the filter housing is a suction chamber downstream of which, one or more filter bags are provided to separate dust from suctioned air. The filter bags can be constructed to prevent radial and longitudinal collapse thereof, as well as to undergo contraction when the chute and filter housing are contracted. An inlet pipe can be provided within the bag to convey the grain to the chute and in the contracted state the chute surrounds the inlet tube.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a device for delivering flowable bulkcargo through a telescopic or collapsible chute.

BACKGROUND ART

Devices of this kind are used in many cases for delivering flowable bulkcargo e.g. grain, from the lower end of a container situated at adistance above a tank vehicle to be loaded with the bulk cargo.

During such loading of the tank vehicle with flowable bulk cargo, whichas mentioned above may be grain, or sand, gravel, cement, flour, cocoapowder and other materials, rather great quantities of dust will usuallybe developed, this dust both being capable of constituting a health riskfor the personel in question, and--in the case of combustible dust--anot inconsiderable risk of explosion.

For this reason, in order to prevent the dust from escaping during theloading operation, exhaust filter assemblies are placed at the lower endof the delivering container, the chute then having been moved downwardlyto the lower end of the filter assembly. All filter assemblies havingbeen proposed for this purpose up to now, examples of which are knownfrom the documents Frame-A-2.562.525 and German-A-2.313.779, have beenconstructed with fixed dimensions, and thus by placing such a filterassembly between the lower end of the delivering container and the chutethe available free height is reduced which is disadvantageous,particularly since it is desired to increase the size of the tankvehicles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is thereby an object of the present invention to provide such adevice by which the available free height is substantially increased ascompared to devices comprising a filter assembly with fixed dimensions.This object is achieved with a device, according to the presentinvention in which the filter assembly is telescopic or collapsible inthe vertical direction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In the following specification, the present invention will be explainedin more detail with reference to the drawing, in which

FIG. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section through the device in anoperational situation, while

FIG. 2 shows the device in a collapsed position of rest.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The device shown in the drawing for delivering flowable bulk cargo (notshown), e.g. grain, consists of two main components, viz.

a chute 1 which has elongated and contracted states in the verticaldirection, and

a filter assembly 2, likewise having elongated and contracted states inthe vertical direction.

When in use, the device is placed at the lower end of the elongated andcontracted states of the chute 1 and filter assembly 2 can be achievedby making chute 1 and filter assembly 2 "telescopic or collapsible" andhereafter this expression will be used to describe the configuration, agranary or a grain bin (not shown), so that an opening in the bottom ofthe granary or grain bin connects to the upper end of an inlet tube 3,the lower end of which opens in the chute 1. The lower end of the chuteis formed with an outlet cone 4. The outlet cone 4 rests in an openingin a roof 5 of a tank vehicle (otherwise not shown) for transportinggrain.

Thus, the filter assembly 2 and the chute 1 serve to guide the grainflowing from an outside source, such as a granary or grain bin (notshown) down into the tank vehicle, via the roof 5 thereof.

The filter assembly 2 is adapted to prevent escape of dust while thegrain flows down through the filter assembly and the chute. To this end,the filter assembly 2 is constructed as an enclosure extending aroundthe inlet tube 3 to form an inlet assembly above the chute 1, the lowerend of the enclosure in the operating condition shown in FIG. 1 being inopen communication with the upper part of the chute 1 and the lower partof the inlet tube 3, while the upper end of the enclosure forms asuction chamber 6, the latter being connected through a suction conduit7 to a suction fan or the like (not shown).

In order to prevent the dust, which is transported with the suctionedair from the transition region between the inlet tube 3 and the chute 1,from leaving the filter assembly 2 and thus escaping to the atmospherethrough the above-mentioned suction fan, a number of filter bags 9 areplaced in the enclosure between the inlet tube 3 and the outer wall 8 ofthe filter assembly. Quite a large number of these filter bags 9 may beplaced about the inlet tube 3, but only two of these are shown in thedrawing.

As evident from the drawing, the interior parts of the filter bags 9 aresituated on the downstream side of the flow of air being evacuated, forwhich reason dust coming from the flow of grain will be deposited on theupstream side, i.e. the outside of the filter bags 9.

The chute 1 is made collapsible in a manner known per se, its outer wall10 being shaped with peripheral folds in such a manner, that it in factconstitutes a folding bellows. In order to protect the outer wall 10against grain falling through the chute 1, a number of downwardlyconverging funnel rings 11a-d are secured with intervening spaces to theouter wall 10, said funnel rings constantly urging the grain inwardly ina direction away from the inside of the outer wall 10. In the embodimentshown, the chute 1 comprises only four funnel rings 11a-d, but inpractical use, the chute i will have a considerably greater length inrelation to its diameter than as shown, and will hence likewise have agreater number of funnel rings, e.g. from eight to ten.

Those features of the device according to the present invention up tonow having been described in this detailed portion of the presentspecification, at least in principle substantially belong to the presentstate of this art. The new and characteristic features of the deviceaccording to the present invention are to be found in the constructionof the filter assembly 2, now to be described in a more detailed manner.

In contrast to previous filter assemblies for use in devices of thiskind, the filter assembly 2 according to the present invention is inprinciple telescopic or collapsible in the axial direction, i.e. in the.vertical direction. This is achieved

partly by shaping the outer wall 8 of the filter assembly as a foldingbellows in the same manner as the outer wall 10 in the chute 1, and

partly by likewise shaping and situating the filter bags 9 in such amanner, that they may be collapsed in the axial direction or verticaldirection of the device.

This will be clearly evident by comparing FIGS. 1 and 2, the latterFigure showing the device with both the chute 1 and the filter assembly2 in the collapsed condition. As evident from the drawing, the funnelrings 11a-d of the chute are constructed with such a large internaldiameter, that they can be moved up around the lower part of the inlettube 3 with ample clearance, so that the mutual dimensioning of theinlet tube 3 and the funnel rings does not constitute any hindrance tolifting of the chute 1 to the level remitted by the collapsed filterassembly.

In order to prevent the suction pressure in the suction chamber 6 fromcausing the filter bags 9 to collapse, the latter may with internalstiffening rings or the like (not shown preventing radial collapse ofthe filter bags, and

partly and in a manner known per se be provided is with internalstiffening rings or the like (not shown) preventing radial collapse ofthe filter bag, and diagrammatically illustrated at the top of thefilter bags 9 in FIGS. 1 and 2 for

partly be provided with means to prevent the filter bags from collapsingaxially, e.g. in the form of a sufficiently heavy weight 12 placed on orsecured to the bottom of each filter bag, or else a securing member 13,with which the bottom of each filter bag is secured to a rigid matchingring 14 inserted between the outer walls 8 and 10.

The drawing shows only those parts strictly necessary for understandingthe present invention, other parts being omitted to simplify thedrawing.

The device shown normally will comprise, the following illustratedelements

a number of hoisting cords with an associated manual or motor-drivenwinch, by which the outlet cone 4 may be lifted, thus collapsing thecomplete device,

means for removing the collected dust from the outside of the filterbags 9, such as a vibrator, a dust-collecting device etc., and

a tapered plug or the like for closing the outlet cone 4 when bulk cargois not to be delivered through the device.

The present invention is, of course, not limited to the construction ofthe exemplary embodiment of the invention. Thus, the outer wall 8 of thefilter assembly and the outer wall 10 of the chute may be "telescopic",i.e. in the form of a number of tubes or rings, that may be pushed intoeach other. The filter means may also be constructed otherwise than thebags 9 shown; thus, instead of a number of separate bags two peripheralfilter walls may be used, which in a longitudinal sectional viewcorresponding to FIG. 1 would appear almost in the same manner as thefilter bags 9 shown therein. Further, the filter means may--at least intheory--also be "telescopic", i.e. in the form of a number of tubes orrings of air-permeable material capable of being telescoped into eachother.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing, the inlet tube 3 isrigid and not telescopic or collapsible. It is, however, within thescope of the present invention also to construct this component in sucha manner (not shown), that it may be collapsed or telescoped inthe-axial direction in a similar manner to the chute 1 and the filterassembly 2. If so, the funnel rings 11a-d do not necessarily have tohave such an internal diameter, that they may be placed around the inlettube 3.

    ______________________________________                                        LIST OF PARTS                                                                 ______________________________________                                        1              chute                                                          2              filter assembly                                                3              inlet tube                                                     4              outlet cone                                                    5              roof                                                           6              suction chamber                                                7              suction conduit                                                8              outer wall                                                     9              filter bag                                                     10             outer wall                                                     11a-d          funnel ring                                                    12             weight                                                         13             securing member                                                14             matching ring                                                  ______________________________________                                    

What is claimed is:
 1. Apparatus for delivering flowable bulk materialsubstantially free of dust, said apparatus comprising:a chute havingelongated and contracted states in a vertical direction, said chutehaving an open upper end for supply of flowable bulk material theretoand a lower end with outlet means for delivery of said flowable bulkmaterial, and an inlet assembly above said chute, said inlet assemblyhaving an upper inlet end for receiving the flowable bulk material froman outside source and a lower outlet end for delivery of the flowablebulk material to said open upper end of said chute, said inlet assemblyhaving a suction chamber for air flow from the apparatus as the bulkcargo flows through the inlet assembly and the chute, said inletassembly including a filter assembly for filtering dust from the airbefore the air leaves the apparatus, said filter assembly havingelongated and contracted states in the vertical direction.
 2. Apparatusas claimed in claim 1, wherein said inlet assembly comprises asubstantially vertical inlet tube for receiving the flowable bulkmaterial via said upper inlet end, said inlet tube having a lower outletend, a filter housing surrounding the vertical inlet tube to form aspace communicating the said suction chamber, a suction conduitconnected to said suction chamber to convey the suctioned air from thesuction chamber, said filter assembly comprising at least one filtermeans between the outlet end of said inlet tube and said suction chamberfor filtering the air flowing to said suction conduit.
 3. Apparatus asclaimed in claim 2, wherein said filter housing has a lower endconnected to said upper end of said chute, said filter housing havingelongated and contracted states in the vertical direction, said filterassembly and said filter housing being moved to respective contractedstates when said chute is moved to its contracted state.
 4. Apparatus asclaimed in claim 3, wherein at least said upper end of said chute has aninternal transverse dimension greater than that of said lower end ofsaid inlet tube to surround said lower end of said inlet tube withclearance when the chute is in said contracted state.
 5. Apparatus asclaimed in claim 3, wherein said at least one filter means comprises afilter bag having an open, upwardly facing mouth in communication withsaid suction chamber.
 6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein saidbag has a lower end including weight means thereat for preventinglongitudinal collapse of the bag due to suction pressure produced in thesuction chamber.
 7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said baghas a lower end connected to the lower end of the filter housing suchthat the bag is stretched when the filter housing is elongated. 8.Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said bag has a lower endconnected to the upper end of the chute such that the bag is stretchedwhen the filter housing is elongated.
 9. Apparatus as claimed in claim5, wherein said chute comprises a folding bellows and vertically spacedfunnel rings internally connected within said bellows, said funnel ringsbeing tapered to direct the flowable bulk material away from saidbellows as the material flows through said chute, said filter bag beingconnected to an uppermost one of said funnel rings.
 10. Apparatus asclaimed in claim 5, wherein said filter housing and said filter bag aremade of collapsible material to enable said filter housing and saidfilter bag to assume said contracted and elongated states.